Dual 2.0 GHz PowerPC G5 vs MacBook Pro 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo

[Choral14]

Hello, Which machine do you recommend. Would you share your experiences?
The Mac Book Pro (Intel) has 2 GB Ram and I know I have to use firewire 800 external Hard Drives. I'm going to use AIR Virtual Instruments and Ivory Pianos and my DIGI 002.

[Shifted Music]

Originally Posted by Choral14

Hello, Which machine do you recommend. Would you share your experiences?
The Mac Book Pro (Intel) has 2 GB Ram and I know I have to use firewire 800 external Hard Drives. I'm going to use AIR Virtual Instruments and Ivory Pianos and my DIGI 002.

I have a G5 Dual 2.7 and a macbook Pro 2.53

my macbook is way more reliable/ quicker, easier on the system usage with VI's and plug ins and all around more powerful by somewhere around 20 percent real world. Based on DVerb tests I got about 68 on the g5 and about 16-17 more on the laptop. The difference between the two machines you mentioned should be even greater. Not only faster clock speed but WAY faster technology inside the chips themselves from a dual 2.0 ppc to an intel core 2 duo 2.26

on the laptop you can use the latest instruments with all the fixes and additional content. . the PTIEP.

Plus the latest version of pro tools 8 and even pro tools 9 if you want to upgrade later.

I say go for the laptop... then you can add more ram as 2g might be a little tight when it comes to lots of Vi's and medium sessions... But you can always try everything out and expand as needed..

Drives wise I plug 2 glyphs via FW800 onto my laptop. on the first connected glyph (my audio drive) I then connect from the fw400 port to the 003 via fw400. This is how Glyph support told me to connect em. Then via fw800 I connect to the other drive (sample library).

hope this helps.

[suicune]

Be advised that the new Ivory II takes nearly 1GB RAM per instance at the highest sample level. Even Ivory 1 was well in excess of 512MB. If you intend to run Ivory, I would strongly recommend installing more than 2GB RAM, plus remember to install the samples on a separate FW drive (not your working audio drive) as an internal 5400RPM drive will not be able to cope with Ivory's disk traffic if your playing is moderately complex.

Be aware that using the 002R will choke all your hard drives back to FW400 speed as it only has one FW bus, which gets clocked to the lowest common denominator.

But I would concur go with the laptop, I don't think anyone would really recommend going with a PPC machine at this stage, it's just going to increasingly resemble an expensive paperweight as time goes on.

[Choral14]

Originally Posted by Shifted Music

Drives wise I plug 2 glyphs via FW800 onto my laptop. on the first connected glyph (my audio drive) I then connect from the fw400 port to the 003 via fw400. This is how Glyph support told me to connect em. Then via fw800 I connect to the other drive (sample library).

If I understood, you have drives with the two options Firewire 400 and 800 on the same drive? If not, could you please explain me how exactly are your drives conected? How many Firewire 400 to 800 adapters do I need?
Thank you againg in advance.

[Shifted Music]

Originally Posted by Choral14

If I understood, you have drives with the two options Firewire 400 and 800 on the same drive? If not, could you please explain me how exactly are your drives conected? How many Firewire 400 to 800 adapters do I need?

The glyph drives I use have fw800 and 400 connections and other types as well.

The two drives themselves are chained together using 800 cables and out of the first drive's (audio drive) 400 port I go to the 003. This way if I don't need my sample library drive I don't need to turn it on.

Although the guys at Glyph recommended I not have anything plugged into a port if there is not a drive that is powered on at the end of the cable... so I pretty much always have both drives running.

[Choral14]

Thank you very much for your input.

[Choral14]

Just one more question. How do you have setup the playback engine? Should I use two processors or just one, 85% or more?
Thank you.

[Choral14]

Just one more question. How do you have setup the playback engine? Should I use two processors or just one, 85% or more?
Thank you.